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The turnout of members at this meeting was again very good and the room was nearly packed. We had some new members join us and we hope to see them out and about with us during the rally season. The business side of the meeting was held with information given to members about all the events we are attending over the summer.
Then we invited our Branch member, Clive Mees, to talk on his subject “People of the Great War as remembered in crested china”. Clive had started to collect crested china about 15 years ago and now has a comprehensive collection. Clive had also brought along some pieces of china he has in his collection, so we could see what he was describing.
Clive told us that crested china started to be produced back in the Victorian era and was made to commemorate events that happened in the country. A lot of Clive’s collection he had brought was from the First World War. He passed around two Zeppelins that had been made to commemorate the dropping of bombs from them over Bury St Edmund’s and Clive gave us a map to look at to see where these bombs had been dropped.
Other pieces included a search light and on the bottom it had an inscription to say that it was copied from one used at Bury St Edmund’s although the crest was from somewhere else in the country. Some of Clive’s other pieces included a nurse tending to a wounded soldier and a bomb.
Clive then took us round the East Coast where Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth had also been hit during the First World War. There was even a piece that was a lighthouse with a hole in it to commemorate the dropping of a bomb in Lowestoft. Clive also had postcards and plates from the War and china ships that were used in the war.
Clive had asked members to bring any memorabilia from the First World War and these included two walking compasses and some medals. Clive is going to help with finding information on the medals. Some of the china makers of the time were the Goss family and we even had one of their descendants, Pat Goss, come along and spoke to Clive on the family history.
This was a very interesting meeting and we thank Clive for coming along with his collection to show us and talk to us on something that many of had not realised even existed.
The meeting was followed by refreshments including some of Chairman Mary’s lovely cakes. Our pub card raised a further £29 for our charity for 2017, Suffolk Accident Rescue Services.
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